Puppets
by Halfway
Summary: Inspired by episode 18. The aftermath of the Puppeteer's control.


"What happened?"

"You were a puppet."

A puppet. Again. Another person controlling him.

Adrien cursed quietly to himself as he paced his room. Plagg floated nearby, watching as his boy worked himself into a fit.

"A puppet. I am so tired of people controlling me. I thought being Chat would give me freedom from all of that, but no. Again I am controlled, again I am not free to act as I please." Adrien's voice was quiet but strained. He was fighting himself.

The pacing continued in wider and wider circles as Adrien attempted to sort out the mixed emotions that came from trying to separate into two different lives. As Adrien he was the perfect child, the model son (How's that for a damn pun, Chat?), the epitome of what a young man of importance should be. But Adrien wasn't free, he had no will of his own. Always at the beck and call of others. His every action and emotion planned to only present what was favorable.

When Plagg had shown up carrying a silver ring and look in his eyes that said that Adrien was important and destined to do more than be a trophy, Adrien thought he had finally found his freedom. For the first time in his life he could run as fast as he wanted, jump recklessly, yell and shout and make inappropriate jokes, and be the fourteen year old that he was. When he met Ladybug, she accepted everything that made Adrien a failure in his father's eyes. His overenthusiastic reactions, his dorky mannerisms, and his wildness were all taken with a small laugh and a brilliant smile, and suddenly Adrien never wanted to stop being Chat because Chat was who he yearned to be. Free from the chains and the puppeteers that controlled Adrien, free from the expectations that limited his dreams, and free from the ever-present glare his father seemed to have frozen on his face.

But no. It was too perfect to be true.

With a snarl, Adrien slammed his fist into the wall. Without the strength of Chat all he managed to do was hurt his hand, but the pain gave him an excuse for the angry tears that were slowly rolling down his face.

Plagg, his habitual after battle cheese forgotten on the computer desk, was hovering over Adrien's shoulder his concern palpable. It had been a long time since he had seen Adrien this distraught. The last time was very early on when Adrien's father had threated to pull him from public schooling because he wasn't performing as well as expected. Adrien wasn't getting enough sleep, too busy trying to find he limits of his new powers, and thus everything else had started to slip minutely. The issue then was the dual identity of Adrien and Chat Noir as it was now.

"Adrien?" the kawami asked, not sure what to say to help the situation.

With a watery sigh, Adrien slid to the ground wrapping his arms around his bent legs to rest his head against them. Plagg landed on his knee.

"What do I do, Plagg? This is the second time I have been turned into a puppet as Chat. Chat is supposed to be free, he's supposed to be everything I'm not, and yet he keeps being trapped and controlled. I don't know how to deal with this. Chat is my outlet, but he keeps ending up in the very same situation I'm in. He's not supposed to have chains, he can't have chains. On, top of that, I always end up attacking Ladybug. I don't know what I would do if I ever hurt her. I just-I can't-." Adrien's voice cracked as he spoke. The tears that he had ignored before began to flow in earnest, and with a strangled hiccup, he buried his face in his arms and cried.

It was too much for him. He couldn't meld his two lives together. And when his insecurities held Chat back, his inner turmoil was shoved to the forefront of his mind. He wanted to have the two separate, he wanted the freedom that Chat offered without the restrictions of Adrien, but when the edges of his lives blurred together, the careful balance that he had created began to tilt making his world shift and the ground fall out from underneath him. Plagg watched helplessly as his boy wobbled on unsteady ground, edging ever closer to falling off and not being able to pull regain his balance.

Without a word, the small black cat leaned against the weeping boy and began a low steady purr, the only comfort he could offer to a child who had had his strings cut suddenly and then haphazardly knotted back together.


End file.
